


Dance

by kingsman_recruits



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Dance recitals, Eggsy's a little shit, Gen, Merlin is Daisy's new best friend, Unwin family dinners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 19:19:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4449020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingsman_recruits/pseuds/kingsman_recruits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Usually when one misses a family dinner, it's the mother that has to be charmed into forgiveness. This time it's the toddler who holds missing dinners over Merlin's head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dance

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a one word tumblr prompt! Maybe check out my blog (kingsman-recruits.tumblr.com) and send me prompts if you like this one?

            If he was being completely honest, he didn’t know just exactly how he had managed to get himself into this position. He was holding a bouquet of flowers, surrounded by little girls and a few little boys, their obnoxious parents, and Eggsy, who had the biggest smile Merlin had even seen on the boy. _Eggsy. This is most definitely his fault._ Merlin had tried to insist that he wasn’t lonely, but Eggsy had guilted him into coming over for a weekly dinner with his family and Roxy.

            “One meal a week ain’t gonna kill ya, bruv,” Eggsy had gone on as he and Roxy practically dragged Merlin out of the car.

            “Eggsy, I appreciate your concern, but it’s misplaced. I swear to you, I am not lonely.” Eggsy just shrugged his shoulders, still dragging Merlin with him.

            “Merlin, it’s not only that,” Roxy added, sending him a grin. “I’ve seen those _awful_ microwave meals you make for yourself. You need to have a real meal once in a while, and I promise you, Eggsy’s mum is a wonderful cook. It’ll be a nice change of pace!”

            And that’s how almost every Monday night, he found himself at the Unwin’s house, stuffing his face with whatever Michelle had prepared and reluctantly, at first, planning princess tea parties with Daisy. The toddler had clung to him, so much so that she cried every time he wasn’t able to make it to dinner due to some agent fucking up their mission. Any break he got during fixing whatever issues arose, he spent furiously sending text messages to Eggsy to make sure Daisy knew that he would skype her the next day to make up for his absence.

            They had had a few of these skype sessions over the past few months, and Merlin had to admit that skyping with a three year old was not the easiest thing to do. Eggsy was usually there as well to move the conversation along, but a lot of the time, it was just Daisy sitting there, trying to form the question: “why weren’t you at dinner?” and trying to understand his answers. Whenever she gave up to listening to him, she told him what she did that day and she always made sure to show him all of her drawings from the week previous. Merlin noticed as time went on that he was in a majority of her family drawings, along with Roxy of course, but he felt his heart soar every time Daisy pointed to him and said, “See? This is you. You have no hair,” and he’d nod and smile, and tell the little girl that one day she could be an artist if she wanted to. And usually that was enough for her to get over him missing dinner, but that week had been different.

            Merlin had to miss dinner for the second week in a row because Percival was constantly getting himself into sticky situations, and there was never anyone else who could talk him through how to disarm a bomb or, as it happened that day, how to fly the Russian plane he had stolen back to HQ safely. Eggsy’s skype call came through immediately after Merlin had hung up on Percival, and there Daisy was, arms folded across her chest, lips in a tight grimace. It took everything Merlin had left in him to not laugh at the little girl’s attempt at being serious, but he knew that if he cracked even a smile, he’d be in for trouble the next time he saw her.

            “Mer-lin,” she spit out, “I am not happy.” Merlin could hear Eggsy burst out laughing in the background, and he had a second to let a smile emerge as Daisy rounded on her big brother. She pointed a finger at him, and Eggsy’s apology was instantaneous. Turning back to the computer she was sat at, her eyes watched Merlin, and he realized she was waiting for him to respond.

            “I am terribly sorry, little one. I did not mean to miss dinner tonight. I’ll make it up to you next week.” His eyes pleaded at his screen, as he desperately did not want to let her down. He would never admit it to anyone, but he had become just as enamored with Daisy and she had been with him. He’d blame that on Eggsy too, but he felt very protective of the new Galahad and his little sister, and eventually he came to terms with the understanding that spending his Monday nights planning tea parties with Daisy was going to be the highlight of his week.

            “No,” her voice came out, drawing his attention back to the situation at hand. “I want you to come see me dance. Then I will forgive you.” Eggsy had moved into the frame then, and Merlin’s eyes flickered to the boy, looking for some confirmation that Daisy was not getting her words wrong. All Merlin got was a wicked smile.

            “I’m sorry, little one, you want me to what?”

            “Come see me dance. Friday.” Merlin barely had time to answer before Daisy pulled out her weekly drawings. The first one she held up had her stick figure dressed in all pink and then Eggsy and Merlin stood to the side with their stick arms in the air. “See? This is you and Eggsy at my dance.” So, it was decided for him: Merlin was going to go to his first ever dance recital to watch horrendously choreographed dance numbers, in which a majority of the kids would forget their steps.

            Eggsy had warned him after they were on their way to the theatre the recital was being held at that it was going to be a torturous affair, and that he’d want to kill himself by the end of it, but Merlin figured he was just exaggerating. He was not, and there were only two times in which a smile had graced Merlin’s face during the three hour event. The first was during the two minutes Daisy had been on stage. She had forgotten a few steps, but she looked adorable, so Merlin was able to forgive her. He was immensely proud of the little girl, and it is obvious that she was the best dancer in her class. Michelle, who had been smacking Eggsy’s chest every time he let out a giggle as something went wrong, ending up having to shush both of them when they gave the girl a standing ovation.

            He was now standing in the crowded entrance hall, waiting for Michelle to bring Daisy out from backstage. Merlin was looking around for their familiar faces, but it was Eggsy who caught sight of them first. Shouting for Merlin to follow him, Eggsy ran off in his sister’s direction, swooping her up, and showering compliments on her. Daisy giggled at his antics, but when she was finally placed back on the ground, her smile curved downwards slightly.

            “Mer-lin, did I do good?” She asked, looking up at him through her eyelashes. Bending down to her level, Merlin pulled the flowers he had hidden behind his back out and handed them to the little girl before smiling a second time.

            “My dear, you were incredible.”


End file.
